Florida Woman Pleads Guilty To Plotting To Smuggle Military Boats To China - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2020) A woman in Jacksonville, Florida has pleaded guilty to charges of trying to illegally export maritime raiding craft and engines to China, the Justice Department said on Wednesday

"Yang Yang (34, Jacksonville) has pleaded guilty to conspiring to submit false export information through the Federal government's Automated Export System and to fraudulently export to China maritime raiding craft and engines," the department said in a statement.

Yang faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison on the charges but a sentencing date has not yet been set, the Justice Department said. She was employed by the Shanghai Breeze Technology Company in China, it said.

"Yang ...attempted to order from a US manufacturer seven combat rubber raiding craft equipped with engines that can operate using gasoline, diesel fuel, or jet fuel. These vessels and multi-fuel engines are used by the US military and can be operated after being launched from a submerged submarine or dropped into the ocean by an aircraft," the release said.

No comparable engine is manufactured in China. When the US manufacturer suggested that Yang purchase cheaper gasoline-fueled engines, she insisted that she wanted to purchase the military-model multi-fuel engines, the Justice Department said.